Saturday, December 21st, 2013

The opening Saturday of bowl season may not feature college football’s marquee teams, but it certainly does include some of the nation’s marquee talent.

The prime game on the schedule is the Las Vegas Bowl, which kicks off between two ranked teams, No. 20 Fresno State and No. 25 USC, at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC. To find out more about the top NFL draft prospects playing in the game, including arguably the nation’s top senior quarterback prospect in Fresno State’s Derek Carr and two of college football’s best wide receivers in Fresno State redshirt sophomore Davante Adams and USC junior Marqise Lee, check out Joe Marino’s Prospect Preview of the game.

Saturday’s other three bowl games also each include players whose names should be called in the 2014 NFL draft.

Wednesday, August 14th, 2013

Despite not being power conferences, both Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference have produced their share of NFL talent in recent years. An average of eight players have been selected from C-USA during the last five drafts, including one first-round pick in each of the past two drafts (Memphis defensive tackle Dontari Poe in 2012, Houston cornerback D.J Hayden in 2013). During the same period, the Sun Belt has averaged 4.8 selections with no first-round picks.

While neither conference possesses any surefire first-round caliber prospects for the 2014 NFL draft, Western Kentucky linebacker Andrew Jackson is gaining notoriety heading into the season.

Due to conference realignments, C-USA boasts six new football schools this season while the Sun Belt adds two schools. In this article, we’ll explore some names other than Jackson to watch this season amongst the C-USA and Sun Belt teams.